COP24, the two-week 24th conference of the parties of the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), started on Sunday in Katowice, Poland, with a special focus on carbon neutrality and gender equality.

On Monday, the grand opening ceremony took place this morning, 2 December with about 40 heads of State and heads of Government in attendance, as well as UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

Thousands of world leaders, experts, activists, creative thinkers, and private sector and local community representatives will gather to work on a collective action plan to realize critical commitments made by all the countries of the world in Paris, three years ago (2015).

UN News put together this guide to COP 24 to answer some of the biggest questions you may have and make sure you’re all caught up, with a ringside seat on the action.

To limit COP24’s footprint and achieve carbon neutrality locally, the conference organisers have taken a series of different measures. First, public transportation in the city is free of charge for the duration of the conference, for all participants.

In addition, reusable materials have been used to set up the conference rooms, including carpets and backdrops. Recycled cardboard furniture was installed in all the main meeting spaces.

This blog Geração Polar (Polar Gen) developed in Languages curriculum was created by students of a Secondary school in Porto, Portugal, as a curricular and extra-curricular activity to participate at the International Polar Year(IPY).For two years, the students worked on this project Geração Polar.One hour per week, my students and I went to school in an extra-curricular time to prepare the texts, to choose the themes and photos, making a serious research about Polar environment.

Education and OutreachThere are many ways you and your project members can get involved in Education and Outreach, such as contributing to IPY Blogs, working with local)schools and science centres, or doing media interviews.(...)

Now, only few students and me continue this blog project, in a distance online collaboration.They are publishing, news, stories concerning Polar Education, when they have some time. I am tutoring as a collaborator. I don't teach face-to-face anymore at this school neither the students are studying in the same school. They grew-up and are studying in different colleges in different areas: biology, music, engineering, IT, sciences, literature, economy, sport.Together, we continue the blog Geração Polar with the same enthusiasm as environmentalists.

The pictures are so detailed they had to use one of the most powerful supercomputers on Earth to ingest the data. Having access to this amount of information will allow researchers to better monitor the effects of climate change on the ice.

Antarctica is the most desolate and inhospitable place on Earth and its remoteness makes monitoring changes in the fluctuations of ice and water levels difficult. Because of the warming climate, seasonal changes at Antarctica are becoming more severe, making the need to understand the loss of ice even more important. Read more hereGeração 'explorer'30.09.2018

The adventure lasted three years, covering 40,000 miles (64,000km) and five continents: the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia. The Arctic was its pinnacle. For Page, it was a mental challenge as much as it was a physical one.

All in all, the trip was about 40,000 miles. In 2017, Page finally made it back home, and was reunited with his parents.

Despite his film receiving distinguished recognition - including "Best Adventure Film" at the New York Wild Film Festival 2018 and "best director" at the Bilbao Mendi Film Festival, Page confesses his awkward relationship with the camera. Read more here